About Elle
Elle is a nonprofit director, visual designer, environmental activist and editor based in the San Francisco Bay. She is editor in chief and cofounder of Poets Reading the News, a journal bridging poetry and journalism which has published over 1,000 poems about current events from national poet laureates, Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, and emergent writers in 25+ countries. From 2015-2018, Newton was Writer in Residence at Babelab Gallery in Oakland, where she organized dozens of events, salons, and workshops including the large-scale exhibition Believe the Hype. She has taught workshops on writing, journalism and digital publishing in Vermont, Texas, California and Louisiana. Newton's work has been featured on NPR, KPFA, Ivoh Magazine, East Bay Express, Deadnite Magazine and in the SF Chronicle. Her poem Afterwards was adapted for the stage by Victor Talmadge and performed by the Mills Players. Her professional life has thrived at the intersection of the Bay Area art, tech + community spheres, where she leads funding and media strategy for start-ups and nonprofits focused on environmental and rematriative work. Newton leads the design consulting studio Trailsend Creative. She graduated with honors in art + history from Mills College and University of California Los Angeles. Much of her personal time is spent hiking in California, advocating for protections for redwoods and Tule elk, and rewilding her garden with native plants.